Jingle Bell Rock
by SurfingSpider
Summary: [BGC2040] Christmas Eve and Nene and Linna have dragged Sylia into last minute shopping to a department store when they are trapped inside. The Knight Sabres and other shoppers soon discover that the boomer Sales Staff have a new take on customer service.
1. Chapter 1

Jingle Bell Rock 

Part I

_Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock_

_Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring_

_Snow and blowing up bushels of fun_

_Now the jingle hop has begun…_

"If I hear that song one more time…" the bottled genie that was Sylia growled. The boutique lingerie shop owner stalked behind her two spirited companions – Linna and Nene – as they made their way through the woman's floor of a Marui OIOI department store occupied by a few other late night and forgetful shoppers. Mari OIOI was a far cry from boutique and Sylia despised the smell of cheap perfume.

"Oh come on, Sylia!" Nene chirped looking over her shoulder. "Lighten up!"

It was Christmas Eve and neither of the junior Knight Sabre's had done their most important Christmas shopping- that is for themselves. Somehow they had managed to drag Sylia into their adventure.

Sylia grunted, stepping around the oversized behind of another late night shopper who was scanning the lower racks for her size of slacks. 'She will never find them' Sylia thought to herself. Outside of her own store the silver-haired woman did not have to maintain the lie she wore to get her own customers to buy her wears. That was someone else's problem but more likely a boomer's problem in this store. Another reason to hateit here. Boomers. Hating boomers was the one thing Slyia and Priss - the only Knight Sabre not present and not afraid enough to hurt the other's feelings by slamming her trailer door in their faces when given the opportunity to come along – had in common. Elsewise the two disliked each other almost as much as they did boomers.

The enemy of my enemy is my… ally.

The two strong willed women would never consider themselves as friends. Their relationship was a business partnership. Priss destroyed the boomers in her sledgehammer fashion and Sylia gave the red head the powerful equipment to do so.

Sylia's relationship with the other two was much the same. Nene worked in the ADP with access to their files and was almost as good a hacker as herself. Linna was an idealist, something Slyia had never been, a born cynic instead, and was capable enough to provide Priss with back up when they fought boomers. Unfortunately, Slyia sighed unable to help herself, Nene was no good in a fight and Sylia herself couldn't handle the stress of combat anymore. Not when she and the boomers had so much in common…

Damn you father…

"What about this one, Sylia?" Linna was asking and broke Sylia from her review.

"Hmm?"

Linna frowned. "If you're not going to pay attention and at least look like you are enjoying yourself… well I wonder why you came along."

Sylia had to catch herself from snapping back that she did not want to come along and was not enjoying herself. She would rather be at home locked away from the world while it cheered at fireworks and drank too much, oblivious to the threat of rogue boomers and the Genom Corporation. Instead she said: "I'm sorry Linna, I was thinking about Priss and how lonely she must feel right now. But that is a nice blouse."

An appeased look came over Linna's face. She liked the blouse she was holding, white with floral pattern, and because of Slyia's taste in clothing respected her opinion on the matter. She wished she could afford the clothes from Slyia's shop but even with at cost because she was a Knight Sabre an outfit was far out of reach. She had enough trouble with the maintenance bills of her scooter and dry-cleaning her office uniform. Charging out of work to turn into a Knight Sabre took her through a lot of congested traffic, or having to run blocks to meet the truck would ruin her hose and occasionally cause a heel to snap.

"Are you sure Linna? It looks small and might be too tight on you," Nene said.

"Saying that I am fat, Nene?" Linna said darkly. Nene was sizes below herself, a child in comparison.

"Huh? No…"

"You really can be clueless at times, Nene."

"Don't be mean to me Linna. Its Christmas and you should be nice to everyone. Isn't that right Sylia?"

"Ah hmmm,"

Sylia had lost attention again. Her eyes were scanning the shopping floor. In sight there were perhaps another dozen shoppers most of them female. The men were boyfriends or husbands dragged along and desperately wanting to leave and fall into a tank of sake or beer. There were no human staff, not at least that Sylia could see. Humans had given up such boring and tedious jobs not long after humanoid boomers came into production. Let them handle stupid customers and maintain a perfect smile.

Half a dozen of the machines all wearing identical uniforms. Spotless and immaculate, make up, large wide anime eyes that men loved and women found un-threatening; C sized breasts that they did along with the other perfect proportions. Well it gave the boyfriends and husbands something to look at while their women went through rack after rack of clothes. Sylia smiled, there were no boomers at her store for the men to ogle but there was her. Men didn't mind being dragged around her shop, not when she was nearby and flirting a little with them. Not enough drive the woman away, just a little less. A small perverse satisfaction that maybe when the wife or girlfriend was wearing something for her shop the man would see her instead.

Sylia wondered if maybe it wasn't a good idea to be closed on Christmas. It would have to be nearly as a good a day as Valentines.

"Yeah, Nene, that's really good. It would go well with those jeans back there."

"Ugh jeans!"

"Of course if you had a butt jeans would suit you."

"What!"

"Now, now, children, behave or the boomer Staff will ask you to leave."

"Linna started it, Sylia."

"I know, Nene."

"Oh come on…"

"I know, Linna."

Sylia could not help but smile, an infection that spread quicker than the rogue virus to the other two women and soon the smiles turned to laughter. It was good to laugh, a freedom from the body tension. Laughter made the boomers, her father's legacy, the Knight Sabres, distant like a hard to recall memory.

It was a shame really that Priss was not with them. They didn't always have to be together only when there was fire and destruction.

In her peripheral vision Sylia caught a boomer attendant looking at her with its wide vacant eyes. As she turned her head to look at it the boomer quickly looked away and approached a single female shopper.

"Konban wa, miss."

"Let's keep going before they lock up and we're shut in here." Sylia said.

"What would be so bad about that?" Nene asked jokingly.

All the lights went out.


	2. Chapter 2

Part II

"What happened? Sylia, Nene?"

"We are right here, Linna," Sylia said and placed a reassuring hand on Linna's shoulder. She already had Nene under occupation. "Stay still for a little while until your eyes get used to the darkness."

The previously bright lit floor was now in total darkness. There was no light at all.

"What do you think happened?" Linna asked again.

"Brown out," Nene said, "too much power being requested and the grid can't handle it."

"Sylia?"

"I don't know. In any case we should stay together and try to find an exit. We're on a main pathway and following that will lead us to the escalators. Do any of you remember where an exit sign was? It will lead to the fire stairs."

"No, Slyia, sorry," Nene said. "I don't like the dark."

"What about the staff? They will be able to help us and the other customers," Linna said intelligently.

Sylia had forgotten about the boomer Staff. They could see in the dark and also likely contained geospatial positioning systems and floor plans of the department store allowing each of them to move around in the black out even if their optics were disabled. There was nothing to worry about at all.

"Good thinking, Linna."

"Thanks, Sylia."

"I'll call one then – hey help! Over here!" Nene yelled.

"Sush, Nene," Sylia warned, giving Nene's shoulder a squeeze.

"What for, Sylia? There's no danger. We'll be out of here in no time and hopefully the payment system has shut down too so this stuff won't cost me a single yen!" Nene held up her shopping ineffectually.

Sylia didn't know why she shushed Nene. It was just that that feeling had crept up and taken root at the base of her spine when Linna had mentioned the boomers. She had to laugh at herself – wanting to drive the feeling of unease away – boomers were her nemesis, raison d'etre for existing. If boomers were around then the cause of the trouble was their fault. To her it always came down to that. Boomers were bad and to be destroyed.

"Oh, come on Nene you're not thinking of stealing it?" the irrepressible champion of rights Linna chided.

"It's just a thought."

The three fell into silence, straining their ears to hear anything while they could not see. The circulation system was still running, its white noise now the loudest sound. The seconds dragged on.

"Where is a Staff? They should be here or telling us what to do in an emergency," Linna whispered unconsciously. "And what about the other customers? There were some not far from us before the lights went out."

"And one of the boomers," Sylia said almost to herself.

"Perhaps we should look for those customers?" Nene suggested.

"Why aren't they saying anything?" Linna said.

Sylia's unease was not going away. As each minute standing past the stronger it grew. What was happening was unnatural. They should have heard someone, especially hysterical female shoppers screaming for assistance. They could not be the only ones to have asked for help. And where was that help? Slyia did not like what was going on at all.

"Let's try and find the fire stairs ourselves," the silver-hair women said.

"Why not the escalator?" Linna asked.

"They won't be working if the lights are out-" Nene replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"If the power is gone the main entrances will be sealed so we wont be able to get out even if we get down to the ground floor," Slyia lied, "the exits are released for this sort of emergency and the fire stairs may have their own lighting."

"We'll follow you, Sylia," Linna said to the Knight Sabre leader.

"Keep together, I don't want anyone to lose touch." Sylia ordered.

Sylia lead the three-link chain. She had a mental map of the area around them reconstructed before the lights had mysteriously gone off. They could be no further than twenty meters from an exterior wall and having a solid wall to one side would make her feel a lot more comfortable than standing in the open. Following the wall would certainly lead to a set of fire stairs.

Groping about in the blackness was not a quick or dignified way to travel. Slowly and carefully Sylia threaded her way through the inconveniently placed clothes racks and displays. Nothing was perfectly linear or gridmarked in a department store. Aisles had to point in different directions and laced with more obstructions than the D-Day landing beaches, terminate with a dead end or offer or something to stumble over.

Finally however they reached a wall. Sylia lead clockwise brushing the wall with her fingertips, seeking reassurance from the wall's physical and immobile presence.

Then the fingers felt air and she stopped. Nene then Linna bumped into her back like a collapsing accordion.

"Oof, why did you stop like that?" Nene growled from between Sylia's shoulderblades.

Sylia said nothing, she ran through the possibilities of what the emptiness could mean. Despite the time her eyes had not adjusted and the void was even blacker than the rest around her.

"Did you hear that?" Linna whispered.

"No, what?" Nene said, still stuck in the middle of the taller women.

"Quiet…"

There was a noise, Linna had been right. A crunching, tugging, tearing, gristle-ing noise coming from inside the void. Other than the air vents it was the only noise and it made their hearts beat faster.

"I wish I was in a hardsuit right now," Linna said.

"Follow me, but be ready for anything," Sylia said and as quietly as she possibly could stepped into the void and the change room she expected the void to be.

Change room areas can be of many formats. A long corridor with booths on one side or two, multiple corridors or an open space surrounded by booths. In Sylia's own store there was just the doorway and then two booths for changing. A boutique store, Sylia's did not have hundreds or even dozens of customers going through daily. It was exclusive enough that waiting for a booth was acceptable to the customers. Waiting meant more time having to look at something else to buy because once a customer already has something to try or purchase they would not leave having lost patience first. Sylia knew her customers and knew women.

The geography of the change room was not important for Sylia to spend much time thinking about. Not when twin round circles of light illuminated the plastic-flesh tone of a boomer staff android.

Behind Linna had seen and let out a sigh, "Finally…"

The boomer wasn't quite right for Sylia's sharp investigation. Dark and deep shadows gouged the boomer's face making its appearance disturbingly psychotic. The light from the eyes bled away quickly disembodying the boomer into a hovering specter that caused Sylia to glance down to see if she could see the boomer's legs and feet.

There was something down there on the floor, a pile that reached the boomer's knees.

Sylia looked back up. She only knew what to expect because she beyond the boomer's glowing eyes and saw that it had gone rogue.


	3. Chapter 3

Part III

Sylia caught the rogue boomer's outstretched hands in her own as it threw itself at her. The impact pushed her back into Nene and Linna and altogether they fell into the ground with the boomer on top.

The boomer made no noise as its claw like hands dripping blood slashed and scraped at Sylia's face. The Knight Sabre leader grunted with effort keeping the plastic and aluminum fingers away from her eyes. Beneath her Nene and Linna writhed and added to the confusion.

Sylia knew she had to end the battle quickly of they were all dead, not from the boomer she was fighting with already but the others that would come. Sylia didn't have the optimism to think that there was only one rogue boomer in the store. All the boomers were monitored, maintained and updated through a central service link to Genom. If one was infected then the probability that they all were was far greater than one random occurance.

"Sylia, Sylia!" Linna screamed

"Help me…." Nene cried, face muffled by the battle atop of her.

Struggling for a base Sylia managed to get her foot against a wall and began to push, tilting her self and the boomer over until they fell off the other two and rolled along the floor.

Sylia was faster than the boomer and leapt back. The gasped as the boomer's nails racked her knee, tearing through the sheer stocking and skin. Swearing, angry, she kicked her heels at the boomer's glowing orbs and grimaced in satisfaction when one strike shattered the persplex eye.

Electrical lightning danced around the fading socket. The boomer was not dead however or even seriously damaged. For a machine an eye was no more than aesthetics pleasing to the human designer.

The boomer jerked back nearly wrenching Sylia's foot from her ankle. The heel still hung ridiculously from its eye.

"Take that!" Linna growled swinging a chair at its head. The boomer tottered sideways as the chair shattered around it in spinning debris that none of the humans could see. The boomer suddenly turned towards Linna and sent her bouncing off the wall with a backhand slap.

Linna fell back to the floor, dazed and bleeding from the side of her mouth.

The only way to stop a boomer – one that had gone rogue – was to destroy its core, the central processor that housed the decision matrix and control orders that gave the machine the grace of human motion. Core's were housed in the safest place in a boomers chassis. For humanoid models that was not the cranium. Sylia's father had rectified God's/evolution's mistake of placing the most important organ required for life not in the most exposed and vulnerable head. Instead of a passionate heart a boomer had its core, heated only by the millions of microcalculations it was required to make each instant to react and interact with the real-world environment, securely tucked beneath honeycomb fibre and wire. It would require more than a flimsy chair or stiletto heels to penetrate through the layers and smash the core into pulp.

Sylia knew all of this intimately. Her father had brainchilded the boomers and she had grown up around them. She knew their anatomy and weaknesses. Her knowledge had created the Hard Suits that had the power and resilience to fight and destroy boomers of all grades. She knew what it took and where to strike to bring a boomer down.

She also knew that she had none of those things with her right now.

Falling over something on the floor saved her life, the boomer's slash missing her throat.

Sylia rolled back with the fall making more distance from the boomer. Her other shoe was discarded. Her hands groped in the dark for something to use, something to tell her what kind of room she was in. Thankfully Nene was quiet, probably terrified and curled up on the floor. Linna… she didn't know about. She prayed that Linna was still alive.

The Cyclops boomer hopped over what Slylia had fallen on. Lines of green conductive fluid ran trickling out of the broken eye, the heel haven fallen free in the fighting, running into its slightly pursed lips that had been coloured Christmas red.

The speed at which the boomer moved suggested to Sylia that it was enjoying the struggle, happy that she was fighting back and wanted to prolong the moment for as long as possible before killing the three of them.

Sylia found an opening and scuttled into it. The boomer was right behind her as she disappeared into the change cubicle. Guessing which side the door was on – hoping that there was one and not a drape – and guessing correctly or her life would have ended there and then, Sylia grabbed the edge of the door with both her hands and swung it with all the violent strength she could muster.

The boomer reached out its hand to stop the door from closing.

The ninety-degree edge came down on the wrist on an angle slamming it against the frame.

The recycled plastic compound that the door was constructed of was not quite as tough as the boomer's structure but it had been put into motion by a woman with nothing to loose. The frame was structurally sounder than the boomer and had a sharper edge. Outer synthetic skin ripped and the wrist bent perceptually.

Sylia pulled the door back and shoved it forward twice more further crushing and twisting the hand from the wrist until it hung limply.

The boomer didn't care.

It knocked the door from the hinges. Sylia deflected it away with her arms, eyes watering as pain rushed up them through her human pain receptors. Raising her knee up high she thrust out and catching the boomer in the sternum shoved it back out of the cubicle and quickly followed it.

"Linna, Nene!" she gasped.

The boomer caught her by her hair and yanked back.

Sylia cried out in pain, body arching. The boomer's eye appeared next to her own. There was hatred there she could see. A base animal understanding that came with the rogue virus. As the virus spread the self-awareness would only get worse until it came to the conclusion that it was a shackled slave and turn against humans with calculated psychotic rage. Not the base instincts to destroy what was not itself that was driving it now.

The base instinct that was just about to terminate Sylia's existence.

Nothing happened. The boomer retained its hold of her but delivered no killing blow.

The blood was pounding so loudly in Sylia's ears that she Nene calling her name until she felt herself being shaken on the arm.

"Nene, my god you're okay."

"I am Sylia. Linna's not too good and we have to get out of here really fast –"

"I think I know, Nene, I have just been fighting a rogue boomer -"

"There's no time to talk! I managed to hack a virus into the wifi network and disable the boomers, all of them I hope, but it wont last long."

Sylia extracted herself from the boomers grasp and took in what Nene said.

"Good work, help me get Linna and then lets find somewhere safe to hide. Can you find that through the network?"

"I don't know, Sylia."

"Try and get too it."

Sylia bumped into the thing she had fallen over earlier. Kneeling she felt with her hands and with dread filling her heart brought the outline of the woman under her hands to her mind.

At least it wasn't Linna. They found her still unconscious but breathing near the entrance along with two pairs of dulled but glowing eyes just about to enter the changing rooms. If Nene hadn't been able to disable them when she did they would have all been very dead.

"Let's go…"

An arm around each shoulder Sylia and Nene carried Linna back out into the black.


	4. Chapter 4

Part IV

"Now where...?" Nene asked, nerves clearly pitching her voice to an even higher degree.

"As far away from them as possible," Sylia answered tried to catch her breath. Having to take most of Linna's sagging weight and navigating through the black aisles didn't give her much respite however. "Do you have any suggestions?"

"No…" Nene peeped.

"Shine the light of your phone in front so we can see where we're going."

"OK," Nene complied meekly, fighting for breath. One of her arms was around Linna's waist the other clumsily flipped her phone and turned up the LED to its brightest. Turning the light outwards it provided illumination for nearly a yard.

At least it stopped them from crashing into clothes racks immediately.

The moments seemed like minutes, time passing by with agonizing slowness. Sylia was all too aware of how short a lead they would have over the boomers that were temporarily disabled behind them, not counting the unknown number littered throughout the department store on all of its levels. She expected at any moment to fell a tug against her back and then agonizing pain as her throat was crushed or a hand burst through her chest from behind. Carrying Linna they would never be able to escape.

Sylia wasn't going to leave one of her girls behind this time, not again.

"Come on Linna, wake up, dammit!" Sylia cursed. At least Linna knew how to fight and would be able to stand her ground.

They struggled around a rack and came back onto the pathway. Back where they had started and in worse condition.

"Hold her," Sylia told Nene and without waiting, each second was precious, she started throwing clothes on a rack to the ground. With both hands she grabbed the light metal rod and shook it out of its moorings. In her hands, sweating, she held the rod. A weapon that could keep a boomer at bay and if used just correctly her computer-fast mind had calculated, would be able to penetrate through the boomer's skull and destroy its core. If there was enough force behind the thrust. If it was timed just right.

"Let's go."

Using the light they made faster pace on the open pathway and reached an escalator. A dead woman shopper lay with her neck twisted too far around a short distance away from it. She would have come up wondering what had gone wrong when the lights went off and then been attacked in the darkness by a pair of soulless glowing eyes.

How many more of them will we find? Sylia thought to herself. Some good news had arrived that Linna was mumbling; a better sign than being silent in unconsciousness.

"Do we go down?" Nene asked.

There was no time to ponder. Sylia lead the way keeping most of Linna's weight on her shoulders and back as they went down. Nene was there just to make sure they all didn't fall down the still escalator.

Even thought it was dark, Sylia still had the strange effect she always had when stepping onto a still escalator. Her mind had been trained from such a young age to expect the stairs to be moving and when they didn't for a moment she felt as if she were going to fall over.

They reached the bottom.

"Which way?" Nene asked.

"Ohhh, Sylia…" Linna groaned.

"Oh, Linna! You're alive!"

"Nene…"

"We can't wait here," Sylia ordered propelling the other two along with her arm.

This floor was much like the first. Aisles of aisles of clothes and stands and completely dark. There was no sign of any boomers. However there were worse signs.

This floor had been busy. All along the pathway bodies of women, teenagers and a few men and children lay in disfigurement and death.

"Why didn't we hear this?" Nene provided the most intelligent question she had asked all night.

Why not? The death of dozens of people without a sound. The snap of bone. Surely someone would have had the time to scream? To have seen what was about to happen, the boomers closing in from all around. There would have had to have been one boomer per dead human, an amazing simultaneous strike that did not allow a single warning to escape.

The planning that would have required… the evil intellect behind it.

Why?

How could an entire store full of boomers go rogue and combine into a collective consciousness capable of such an act in moments. It was impossible.

Unless there was something else behind it all. Immediately Sylia's mind turned to Genom but for them to initiate this attack was beyond belief. It was insane and when ADP found the bodies Genom would not be able to worm they way out of responsibility, such a massacre would be impossible to cover up.

The future was irrelevant however. Sylia had herself and two close friends to keep alive and find a way to escape.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement and heard the rustle shortly after.

Time had run out.


	5. Chapter 5

Part V

"Oh god! You're not one of them!"

A woman burst out from beneath a display, scrambled along the path until she collapsed at Sylia's feet and burst into tears.

"It's a survivor," Nene gasped.

Sylia was paralysed and tried to will herself to move. She had been expecting another boomer attack and not a surviving shopper. She had thought that there were none. The woman had wrapped her hands around Sylia's legs and was shaking terrifically. Sylia did not know what to do.

Nene came to the rescue, her naturally concerned personality asking the woman if she had been injured and if there were more survivors.

"No… I don't know," the woman said. Her face was streaked with tears. Nene had pulled her from Sylia's legs into a sitting position. Linna sagged against Sylia instead. "I was with my girlfriends but they were all killed by the shop assistants. Why did they do that? How could they?" the woman broke down again.

"We have to keep moving," Sylia urged, still unsettled. She could cope with boomers but not a hysterical woman.

"What's your name?" Nene asked.

"Jenny," the woman replied.

"You have to come with us, Jenny. We're going to get out of here."

"We have to, we have to…"

Nene helped Jenny stand up.

"Ok, let's go we can't waste any more time." Sylia said.

The new quartet guided by Nene and Jenny's phone screen continued along the circular path. They were on the fourth floor having come down from five. They made quicker time with the lights to guide them but the illumination also let them see the silent carnage that had taken place in mere moments. Bodies lay still on and off the path, their necks twisted at sickening angles or strangled; the two methods of death silent or fast. There was no sign of the boomers the number of which had to be nearly equal to the total number of shoppers for their to be no screams for others to hear.

That there was no sign of boomers greatly concerned Sylia. She expected Nene's paralysis virus to have worn off by now and the pursuit to begin. Their location had to be known. That the boomers hadn't shown themselves or attacked only increased her anxiety and dread.

Beside her Linna grew in strength as her wits returned. "How are we going to get out?" was her first question.

Sylia smiled at it. It was an intelligent question. If had Priss had been with them it would have been more like 'how are we going to kill them all?'. That was the difference between the two and really why Sylia had brought Linna into the team – not just Priss's interest and recommendation of her fighting abilities. Linna could think ahead and plan. Priss was only concerned with destruction. Sylia could trust Linna to keep on going because she was a believer. Linna could take over if anything were to happen to herself.

Not that Sylia wanted that to happen. There was too much that Linna couldn't know about boomers, a truth that would shake her beliefs to the core.

But right now she didn't have to care about that either. The situation was simple. Escape alive in a completely hostile and unknown situation.

"I doubt that we'll be able to just walk out the front. If the rogue virus has been able to infect all the boomers in the building then they will have complete control over the security systems. I expect the security doors to have come down or at least all the entrances locked.

"There will be boomers on each level. A dozen. All are infected; it spread through the daily update with Genom. They killed everybody quickly and silently –"

"And this woman?"

"Almost everybody. There might be other survivors but we can't go looking for them. We can barely see and are outnumbered. There's no way we can destroy their cores. We have to get out and I think the best way to is get close to the ground floor and find a way outside so we can jump to the ground."

"Sylia, that's not going to be easy or safe," Linna whispered.

"No options we have are easy or safe."

Linna hushed.

"I think I saw something," Nene piped.

"Boomer?" Linna asked.

"I don't know,"

"If their eyes are glowing then its one of them." Sylia said.

"There!" Nene said again.

Jenny hugged against Nene. Sylia took the four of them off the path and behinds some racks. Peeking through Sylia could see two points of light close together and at head hight. The lights didn't move.

"Just standing there, watching us." Linna said quietly.

"Let's find out," Sylia replied. A little bit of Priss was emerging in her. "Back me up, and you two," she said to Nene and Jenny, "stay close behind us and watch out backs."

"Okay," Nene said. Jenny looked terrified but nodded.

Crouching and peeking through clothes they threaded their way closer to the watchman. Sylia's fingers gripped the shaft of the pole tightly. Linna hovered about her shoulder. They got to within a few meters and hadn't been seen.

Sylia turned to Linna and steeled her eyes into the other woman's. Linna nodded back.

Her heart pace already quickening took quick steps standing higher with each one and brought the pole back across her shoulder. The blow she was going for wasn't going to kill the boomer right out, that was asking for too much precision. Amazingly the boomer hadn't seen her yet but just stood there in smart attire and a plastic smile that Sylia could see as she came closer.

Gritting her teeth she swung and connected.


	6. Chapter 6

Part VI

The blow caught it squarely in the face, emitting a flat sound and no reaction what so ever. It rocked back and then started to right itself almost immediately and Slyia let out a frustrated curse. Then Linna, grunting with exertion, threw herself forward onto it and the two of them crashed noisily to the ground.

"If the boomers didn't know we were here they do now," Nene warned.

"Linna!" Sylia said and quickly moved to her friends aid.

"It's alright, Sylia," Linna panted, still under the affect of being knocked unconscious in the last engagement with the rogue boomer sales staff. "Its not a boomer –"

"It isn't?"

"No, it's just a mannequin. Help me up."

Sylia reached down with the pole and Linna grabbed onto it and heaved herself up and rested herself against Sylia again. Sylia could feel Linna's heart beating fast against her own chest. Her own heart was quick.

"Lets keep going, we can't stop."

The four found the halted escalator again and some more slain shoopers. They had been killed like the rest, strangled or had their necks broken. It was fortunate that there was no light to see the gruesome expressions on their faces as they died. Fighting boomers had one advantage over its danger and that was the boomer's expression rarely changed from nothingness as they were just machines, or anger and rage if they had become that aware. It was easy to fight and destroy a machine, something without a living soul or a family and life that could be found out. No one missed a dead boomer. Easily forgotten. The husbands, boyfriends, children and parents of the victims spread throughout the building would mourn and remember painfully for the rest of their lives.

"Just one more floor and we'll be at a position where we can get out," Sylia told everyone quietly. Linna had picked up a clothes pole for herself and Jenny and Nene lit the way with their phone screens.

"Why haven't we seen any more boomers?" Nene asked. "They're meant to be everywhere."

Jenny whimpered.

"Don't frighten her, Nene. She's been through enough, we all have." Sylia chided.

"She is right through, Sylia. On all the floors…"

"Maybe the rogue process didn't activate them all or Nene's hack worked better than she expected. I'm not complaining," to herself she said that they would not have made it this far if there had been even one other boomer. "It gives us a chance and we have to take it."

They found a broken phone. It had been stomped on, twisted and torn apart. The level was without incident and they went down to the second.

"What are we looking for?" Linna asked Sylia.

"The front of the building that faces the street. I am sure that it had windows. We'll break them and jump."

"That sounds dangerous, Sylia," Nene said. "I'm not athletic like you too and we have Jenny to think about."

"Don't be silly," Sylia snapped, "its that or stay here and be killed. Which would you prefer?"

"Sylia!" Linna exclaimed.

"I'd prefer it if Priss came and rescued us. She must be worried."

"Priss is doing her own thing and doesn't know what is going on. We can't expect any help from her."

"It's okay. I can jump," Jenny said surprising everyone. They hadn't expected anything from the woman. Sylia nodded, satisfied.

"Let's go then."

It wasn't far to the first wall. Unfortunately it did not have any windows, just a monotonous flatness that spread in either direction. There was no way Sylia was going to split the group to check each side. They had to stay together for any chance of survival if attacked. She lead them to the right feeling that it was right direction. If only she had paid more attention when the lights were on… but then how was she to expect what had happened or believe that it was possible to happen?

They thread their way long the wall. One phone lit the front, the other checking behind them.

"I thought I head something," it was Nene. Sylia was almost in a mood to disregard her out of hand.

"Keep listening hard. Look for reflections."

"Okay."

They followed the wall until it came to a corner. They turned and light bound back at them.

"Sylia, look!" Linna said her voice filling with hope and eagerness.

"Yes!"

It was not far in front of them and the four rushed as quickly as their tired and sore bodies could carry them to the source of the reflection. But they were disappointed when instead of being able to see out side through glass and freedom they were met by a barrier of a steel shutter.

"Shit!" Sylia swore and smacked her pole against the shutter doing nothing but making a loud noise.

Nene and Jenny sobbed.

"They must have total control of the place," Linna said, her voice empty of all the hope that had been in it just moments before, snatched away by the screen. On the other side of the security shutter was the potential for freedom but they had no way to get at it. None of their weapons were capable of damaging the shutter. "What do we do now?"

Sylia tossed her pole to the floor and it rattled away from her. "There's nothing we can do. The rogue virus may have infected the boomers somehow but how did that jump into the security system so they could activate the security screens? How can rogue boomers take it over? They don't have the mental capacity unless it was her… and it isn't…"

"Her who?"

"It doesn't matter. We can't get out; it means the front doors will be sealed as well."

"Someone will have to notice…"

"It doesn't matter, Linna. Its Christmas, everything is shut now and may not even open tomorrow."

"What about the missing people?"

"There are dozens or hundreds of stores that were open tonight in this area alone that will also be closed. It's a random hope only that ours will be inspected earlier."

"We can't give up," Linna pleaded with her last strength. "We just can't."

Sylia snorted. "You may as well drop your pole. It won't do you any good. You're not strong enough anymore,"

"Sylia what are you saying?" Linna said shocked and hurt.

"Just look behind you," all the fight had gone out of Sylia's voice. Her face was resigned.

Linna pressed her lips tight together and slowly turned around. She knew what was there before she looked, as soon as Sylia had said to turn. It could only mean one thing.

Glowing eyes.

Dozens of pairs of glowing eyes.

Tears streamed down their faces. Nene and Jenny sagged to the floor holding each other. Unconsciously Linna stepped in front of them. Sylia just leant against the shutter.

The rows of eyes were ten meters away covering wall to wall.

The air hummed.

Lights, starting from the distant, flickered and leapt on, a bank at a time chasing the darkness away with brilliance.

Behind Sylia the shutter shuddered and started to move. Startled she stepped away and turned around. She stared as the shutter rose above her ankles, her knees, waist, her eyes following it upward beyond her height and she looked up until it vanished into the ceiling.

Her eyes fell back down and she could see outside.

Her mouth fell open.

Blue and red light washed across her from the many police cars and ambulances that filled the street. Below her as the last bank of lights turned on above them arms pointed at her and she saw mouths open in shout. They had been seen. The barrels of weapons too pointed up.

"Sylia…" urgency in Linna's voice.

Sylia refocused away from what was happening below to the window and the reflection within it. Behind her the rows of uniformed female boomers, faces and figures twisted and distorted by the rogue virus that had taken over their bodies beginning to surge towards their small tired band.

She turned around, the energy of someone not wanting to die, to survive this nightmare, infusing her limbs like electricity. She picked up her pole and joined Linna protecting the others.

"Do they think we're not boomers?" Linna asked of the police behind them.

"When they see us fight they'll know."

"How long have they been there? How did they find out?"

"I don't know and it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we can hold these bitches off long enough for the cavalry to arrive." She tightened her grip on the pole.

"I wish Priss were here."

"Me too, me too."


	7. Chapter 7

Part VII

The boomers came closer in fits and starts, almost as if they were having seconds thoughts or were being forced forward. The slowness of their advance only served to worsen the nerves of Slyia and Linna who waited with the poles in their hands across their shoulder ready to swing. Behind them the other two women cowered on the floor against the window.

Sylia could only spare one glance to them. There was nothing she could do, no attention she could spare. If the boomers got past either Linna or herself she could only hope that it would be quick for them. Better yet none would get past. On the road outside the ADP were lined up like they never had been before. Rescue was here but would it be fast enough? Sylia well knew the capacity of the ADP, so called Advanced police, when they were really just an excuse for the excesses of Genom to make the population feel as if there was a watchdog for boomer rampages. But they were her only hope. She could almost imagine the testosterone filled faces jittering behind squad cars, the heavy armoured K suits – pathetic imitations of her own design Knights and no match for even humanoid sized rogue boomers – and the two detectives Leon and Daley that somehow managed to arrive too late all the time.

"C'mon you bastards!"

The ADP or the boomers, Sylia didn't know who she spoke about.

The first one came at Sylia's summons with jerking motions and both Linna and Slyia swung for it. The poles crashed into its head and shoulder tearing a gash that leaked fluid and pushing it back. The women struck again and the boomer fell over, its customer satisfying smile not leaving its pleasing expression.

"Why don't you try this on for size?" Sylia heard from her left. Her eyes widened as a clawed hand and red nails flashed towards her. A boomer had snuck up without her knowing. She doged the blow but it forced her back into Linna.

"Back you bitch!" Sylia growled and shoved the end of the pole into the boomer's stomach, stopping its advance. The boomer smiled sweetly back at her, others crowding behind.

"It's a perfect fit –"

"You have such fine skin –"

"I want to wear it."

"Red suits your eyes –"

"Let's cover you in blood."

"Your friends are so tiny –"

"They will scream for hours."

"Noooo! Nooo!" Sylia screamed. The taunting was too much, the graphic images flashed cyclically by over and over. She jabbed and the boomer doubled over. There were more behind and they lashed out at her repeating their threats and bloodthirsty desires. It drove her mad.

Things grabbed at her. Nails racked her skin and drew blood. Something grabbed her ankle and she stomped down on it. A spray of green covered the side of her face. She screamed and screamed swinging without stop. There was pain, her body knew it, her mind ignored it. "Sylia, Sylia!" her named was called from somewhere in the distance.

She spat blood into demonic eyes. The end of the pole crushed plastic skull releasing sparks and wires. A uniformed body collapsed at her feet. "Sale on now," it said.

There were tears of rage, impotency and above all hatred. Hatred of what boomers represented and how her father had been their creator. How she had been the vessel that had spawned them.

They all had to die.

She was on her knees. A hand jerked her head back, nails digging into her scalp. Sylia looked up at the shop assistant boomer, no different from any of the others, but that changed suddenly and she saw familiarity in the machine's eyes, a thing from an age ago that was better left deep in the recesses where frightening things lay.

A nightmare escaped.

Then the boomer was falling away slowly, too slowly for reality and its eyes had gone blank. When it hit the ground time returned to normal.

Sound came back.

Realisation came back.

Pain filled her.

"Sylia, stay down!" Nene shouted pulling at the back of her jacket.

There were cracks and the boomers around Sylia jerked and fell away. She scampered back into Nene and Jenny.

"Linna?"

Linna was surrounded. The ADP were not shooting at the boomers around her afraid that they would hit her instead. For her to be torn apart by infected machines legally safer than one of their own bullets ending her life swiftly.

Nene's face was covered in tears.

Linna strugged. The boomers crushed in against her obscenely. Others hung back from the window near to cover avoiding the ADP gunfire.

There was nothing Sylia could do. No strength remained to lift her off the ground and go to her friends rescue. Linna could not even see her try. All she could do was sit there, limp, and watch.

It was not high it was suppose to be. The Knight Sabers were not meant to be defeated again. Everything had been done to improve the suits. The right candidates had been found to wear them.

They weren't in the suits now.

"Oh god, help…" Sylia heard Linna croak. How she wished she could close her eyes and not see; close her ears she so could not hear. There was no strength left in her even to say Linna's name.

Nene and Jenny were pressed up against her back. They were both crying. Sylia could not even do that. Linna had turned around and was looking back at her between two boomer heads. Blood ran down her face and lip, she didn't stop fighting.

Sylia stared at her, all she were able to do. Linna stared back, not breaking the connection no matter how she was buffeted or attacked.

Sylia wished she could break way and closer her eyes. She didn't want to watch Linna die. She didn't want to be responsible again.

The roaring sound of the ocean brought her back to her childhood…


	8. Chapter 8

Part VIII

Priss.

It was Priss.

The daemonic angel.

The wave washed up against Sylia's feet. She felt her body sink into the sand, listless, watching without emotion or anything, Priss land between the three of them and Linna and her mob of shop assistant boomers and begin to tear in to them from behind, grabbing and throwing, her knuckle-bombed fists snapping spin, crushing cores with frantic savagery. Gore splattered up her leg.

The wave washed over her, lifting from the sand, suction vanishing. Sylia felt weightless. Her arms lifted up. Her hair was waving about her face, silver snakes or tentacles.

The recession came as a hurricane louder than anything Sylia had heard of before. The tugging started at her toes rising with increasing ferocity up her legs to her waist pulling the blood out of her toes leaving her numb.

She tried to gasp for air. As soon as she opened her mouth breath was snatched away. Her eyes bulged, her body stiffened, her mouth worked. Nothing. The next wave washed over her filling her mouth and lungs. She was floating clean of the beach. She could see the swirls and eddies around.

And the hurricane returned. It stripped her bare, she wanted to scream but she was drowning.

Her mind could not cope.

Everything went black.

"Jesus, look at the blue one go!" one of the many white lab-suited technicians said. Over his should a man with a long intense face stared at the monitor, too watching the female shaped armoured suit smash and tear its way through a dozen boomers to rescue on the shoppers.

A Public Relations nightmare, Genom Executive Mason thought. At least there was always the fallback position to place the blame. He smirked.

"I've seen enough. Are you sure you have closed the line she was able to access the outside world with?"

"Yes, Sir" the technician said. "It's lucky I was able to stop her from getting complete control of the boomers and security system. If she had – then they'd all be dead. Poor people. At least it was quick."

"Yes at least," Mason responded dryly. Only a hundred people killed and four lucky survivors because they had been able to block her access and keep her out intermittently. She had been slippery, like trying to catch a snake. Mason had to respect her for that. She learnt quickly, adapted and constantly tested their counter measures. If she'd gotten the upper hand then she might have become unstoppable.

Mason straightened up. A lesson learnt. A valuable lesson, one that he would never forget, and would be able to use later.

He left the subterranean facility. Waiting for him in the lift was his personal boomer.

"The crisis has past?" she asked in her high-pitched mechanical voice.

"It has. Use Plan Delta to indict the head technician for deliberate sabotage of Genom boomers."

"Yes, Mr Mason. Specifications will be faxed to his apartment and I will have his maid boomer replicate banned substances."

"He is married?"

"Yes."

"Good. Leave the wife in the bathroom. His handwriting will be on file – make sure the letter is not too melodramatic. Even the lab specimens at the ADP will realize our foils someday."

"Yes, Mr Mason. All will be arranged perfectly."

"Good. Then come to be in my office. I need to relax."

"Oh good, she's coming around!"

That loud voice, so grating.

Nene.

"Sylia! Thank god you're not dead! I almost thought you were!"

"Thanks, Nene. That is just what I wanted to hear," Sylia said slowly waiting for her world to normalize.

A man in a dark blue uniform and baseball cap was leaning over her. "Don't move around. You won't feel good for a while."

Good advice. Sylia sunk back into the jurney.

"Priss?" she remembered.

"Um, she wasn't with us," Nene said carefully, possibly the smartest thing she had said in her life. Gone then, as usual, escaping into the night as they all had done so often.

"Linna?"

"Shaken and bruised a bit. She's in another ambulance getting checked out. Or," Nene giggled, "The paramedic is checking her out. Plus the APD are walking around like roosters at a hen's night. After Pr – the Knight Saber had rescued Linna they burst in and machine-gunned the rest of the boomers to bits and blew up half the store as well with grenades and flamethrowers. It was awesome. Leon is so happy, I'll have to tease him about it at work tomorrow. Oh and he was pretty surprised to see me there, and concerned. Hmm," the redhead pondered, "maybe that's why they went in so hard and didn't take prisoners. That lughead is really just a big softie."

"I'm sure," Sylia said fading Nene's chatter from her conscious. She could see Linna now, who waved at her. Sylia tried to smile. She didn't know if she was successful or not. She couldn't feel anything and the world was spinning slowly.

A familiar mop of hair came into the top half of her frame.

"Hello, Priss. The sale's over I'm afraid."

"Lost none of your humour have you, Sylia. Anyone else and I would have said it was the meds."

"You're such a bitch."

"Go to hell."

"Thank you," fatigue pressed down on her eyes, "for coming…"

Priss, ready to reply, let her mouth close. Sylia had fallen asleep. The singer looked over to the department store, the thick black clouds of smoke shrinking down to wisps of dampened embers. The large fire engine hoses had ceased; firefighters in long yellow and silver jackets crunching their way through the debris dousing the remaining electrical fires.

As Sylia was wheeled away she went over to join Linna, Nene trailing beside.

"I hope Jenny recovers."

"Who?"

"The other survivor."

"People are tough, she'll be ok."

"I hope."

Linna smiled at them. "Better late than never, Priss."

"I usually come early,"

Linna's smiled widened. "That's a double entendre."

"Huh?" Priss said perplexed.

"Still as slow upstairs,"

"Go to hell."

Linna laughed. It hurt her physically yet healed her mind. She kept laughing. Infectious Priss and Nene joined in.

Drifting overhead an advertising dirigible droned out Christmas melodies…

_Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock_

_Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring_

_Snow and blowing up bushels of fun_

_Now the jingle hop has begun…_

30 – fin

Thanks for reading my first fiction and large piece of writing in a long time. I had planned Jingle Bell Rock to be done in a few parts over the Christmas break and in reality it took two months mainly because I don't have that much time anymore and so many other things to take up the dark hours when not working. Thanks to CrimsonNoble for pointing out a plot hole that I had to close and I think I came up with something well befitting a cyberpunk story.

ss


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